First off, the person you're insulting, Jacob Punturi, didn't claim to be a Bruins insider. Nor did he claim to have inside information. He didn't even do any speculating of his own. He aggregated the work of Dan Rosen, Senior Writer for NHL.com.
Rosen is quite obviously legit, but not even he claimed to have inside information about negotiations. The piece that has you insulting "some Gen Z" was a mailbag, where a reader asked Rosen for his take.
Here's
the entire portion on Swayman that you think makes it okay to be patronizing to people just doing their jobs.
(Emphasis mine)
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WHAT DO YOU THINK Jeremy Swayman's next contract is going to look like? Who are the comps? -- @rayguarino
Swayman could realistically get north of $9 million per season depending on the length of his contract with the Boston Bruins. The goalie is a restricted free agent, but the Bruins are holding enough salary cap space to get him signed. It's hard to find a comparable because of Swayman's age. He's 25 and already quite accomplished with 79 wins, a 2.34 goals-against average, .919 save percentage and 12 shutouts in 132 NHL games. He played an NHL career-high 44 games last season and was one of the top goalies in the League with 25 wins, a 2.53 GAA, .916 save percentage and three shutouts.
Swayman's situation is different than most as an unquestioned (now that Boston traded Linus Ullmark) No. 1 as an RFA. Juuse Saros is four years older, he signed an eight-year, $61.92 million contract ($7.74 million AAV) with the Nashville Predators on July 1 and was one year away from unrestricted free agency. Connor Hellebuyck's seven-year, $59.5 million contract with the Winnipeg Jets ($8.5 million AAV) was signed before last season, when he was 30 and one year away from becoming an unrestricted free agent. Thatcher Demko was 25 and a pending RFA when he signed his five-year, $25 million contract ($5 million AAV) with the Vancouver Canucks on March 31, 2021, but he wasn't nearly as accomplished as Swayman at the same age. Demko only had 30 wins and 62 NHL starts at the time he signed. Andrei Vasilevskiy had just turned 25 when he signed his eight-year, $76 million contract ($9.5 million) with the Tampa Bay Lightning on July 29, 2019. Thought not yet a Stanley Cup champion, he was the 2019 Vezina Trophy winner. That was also before the salary cap flattened because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The cap is rising again, which benefits Swayman.
If Swayman wants an eight-year contract, the number possibly could dip below $9 million because the term creates added value over the years, but it's still reasonable to think it starts with a nine. And if he wants a five- or six-year contract, it could absolutely jump to north of $9 million per season, perhaps in the $10 million AAV range. He is already one of the top goalies in the NHL and arguably just now entering the best window of his career, the prime years.
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Oh the f***ing horror of a guy giving his well-informed, totally reasonable, totally fair opinion.
In fairness to you, though, I have no idea if Rosen is also a Steelers fan. Just in case we should all be a dick to both him and someone who had the audacity to merely share Rosen's thoughts on a quick blog.